Grover and Doc

The Adventures and Musings of a Therapy Dog

Stressed

What a week. Doc and I worked at warp speed trying to make sure all the patients were taken care of. Working as a therapy team helps, but sometimes the pressure of the job gets to you anyway.

It was only Tuesday when the stress started taking its toll. Doc was well into her third counseling session when I noticed she kept tugging at the neck of her dress. Finally, she looked down and started laughing, the tag of her dress was in the front. She had been walking around all morning with her dress on backwards. Her excuse was that it’s dark when she dresses at five in the morning. My thought was that she was starting to lose it. On Thursday, she opened the refrigerator in the evening to find a box of cereal she had put it there instead of the cupboard. Luckily the milk was where it belonged. By Friday morning she was really fried and yelled at me for not eating my breakfast fast enough. I ran a hid until she calmed down. Then, while running around the kitchen in her bare feet she stubbed her toe on the baseboard and said some words you would never hear in church. Poor Doc, it was time for an intervention. So, I called some of Doc’s college friends to help.

You need a sense of humor to get through life, but you also need to let your hair down sometimes. Her college friends rolled up in the evening, cooked out on the grill and told war stories about their youth. It was just what the doctor ordered. I could see the stress leave her face and she finally relaxed. Two of the guys even threw the tennis ball for me over and over. I needed to de-stress too because I hadn’t realized how much of Doc’s stress had rubbed off on me.

So, I guess it’s true what Doc’s grandpa use to say ” everything in moderation.” A little work, a little rest and a little play makes for a wonderful, relaxing day.